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The Griffon Valiant UAS prototype is competing for the U.S. Army’s FTUAS program.
The U.S. Army will cancel a nascent program to field surveillance uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) as part of a larger review of its aviation procurement and operations spending.
The service has announced its intent to end the Future Tactical Uncrewed Aircraft System (FTUAS) program, Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the Senate Armed Services Committee’s ranking member, said during a May 8 confirmation hearing for Michael Obadal to be undersecretary of the Army.
The news comes about a week after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a memorandum ordering the Army to transform to a “leaner, more lethal force” with steps such as ending procurement of obsolete systems including “outdated UAVs.”
The Army first selected initial prototypes to compete for FTUAS in 2019, looking for off-the-shelf systems that could replace the Textron AAI RQ-7 Shadow. The service is in the second round of a prototyping competition, having narrowed the offerings to the Griffon Valiant UAS and the Textron Aerosonde HQ 4.8 Hybrid-Quad UAS.
The service announced April 28 it had received its first Valiant as part of the program. The Army selected AeroVironment’s Jump 20 in 2022 for the first increment of the program.
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